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User blog:Nodemaster/My over-the-years data changes
I have been editing the data within magic.exe and wizards.exe (as well as several other data files here and there) to fix whatever problems I could fix that way, and to make things more interesting, and to fix game balance (all in my opinion). I haven't done any code changes, disassembling and hacking in new instructions, but I have made a LOT of changes to the data for various reasons. This is an attempt at a complete list of what I changed, and why (if the reason isn't obvious from what the change is). added after seeing the list of patch fixes are in brackets. Anyone who feels these changes are worthwhile may put them in a patch. I assume anyone capable of creating patches can find the right places to change based on my description; if not, I can try to find the addresses, but I don't have a disassembler or symbol table, just a binary editor. Many of my data changes are actually detrimental in a bug-fixed version, so ignore those if they're not necessary anymore. ----------- Changes made to game startup data: zeroed out ALL spell books and additional powers for ALL wizards, so that nothing is pre-determined. Ariel might get 13 death books in one game and 9 chaos with 6 sorcery books in the next. The 'default' wizards start with no spell books or powers, so you have to pick one and customize it. Changed the city name "Nightwath" to "Nightwatch" like I assume it should be. ----------- Changes made to heroes, from original version: Orc Warrior converted to Troll, with regen instead of thrown weapons. This is an AWESOME change. Now the orc warrior isn't just a barbarian clone. (Changed the name pointer to point to the string "Troll"). Raised hiring cost of Troll to 150, since regen is worth that. Chosen has 1-point magic missile attack, so arcane power is useful. (Unfortunately this lets it attack flying units, too.) see this bug has been patched, so this isn't needed. Elven Archer gets +1 to hit, like all high elves. Healer and Golden One given sword/staff, not just sword, as weapon type. on, they obviously depend more on their magic than their weapons. Dervish changed to race Nomad, not that it matters. Warlock hero changed to race Dark Elf, not that it matters. Thief changed to Twins, same stats except with TWO figures: it works! melee and defense to compensate, but items add to BOTH figures, so it becomes a unique pair of heroes. Paladin gains Dispel Evil power. out, due to a bug in the game, this is completely worthless, but when the bug is patched.... Black Knight gains Death Touch power. to not work, though. All archer heroes are ripped off compared to spell casters, so changed them all to 12 shots all on HORSES, but they can't carry two quivers?? and added 2 to the bow attack strength. Removed the Elven Archer's casting skill (and spells), added agility and an extra pick (though she has almost as many as Unknown) now she won't waste a pick on useless Arcane Power, which does NOT add to bow attack strength. is hard-coded what she can get, rather than look to see she has no spells, so she can STILL get more casting skill, prayer Chaos Warrior, who had no spells, given Disrupt, Warp Creature, Eldritch Weapon, and Call Chaos. Since the Life and Death spells are all irrecoverably broken patch fixed this, so perhaps this change isn't needed, I removed them all for the Witch, Necromancer, Chosen, and Priestess, and replaced them with potentially appropriate spells numbered 127 or below. Witch can throw Earth to Mud, Petrify, Entangle. Chosen and Priestess both get Bless, Star Fires, Healing, Holy Armor (not that the controlling wizard is likely to NOT have those anyway). Necromancer, hired out to a wizard with death books only, yet prevented from casting death spells himself, gets Ice Bolt, Fire Bolt, Psionic Blast, Creature Binding. Powerless heroes aren't worth hiring, ever, so changed the following: a: Gave ONE random pick to all the heroes who had NONE before: Dwarf, Barbarian, Sage, Dervish, Beastmaster, Bard, Twins (Thief), Druid, Ranger, Priestess. the game seems to be hard-coded what picks they can get, and the Druid and Priestess are hard-coded to get fighter-type picks, like Armsmaster. It seems it is not controlled by the type of items they can use, oh well. Priestess is no longer Noble (unless the new pick gives it). Draconian hero gained agility simulate dragon scales, but LOST one pick (down to one) so it is still just as powerful. Twins (Thief) reduced by 2 att, 2 def, 1 resist, 1 hit, compensating for previous doubling of figures to two. NOW they won't be so worthless, and might be worth hiring! I considered changing the Golden One hero to Colossus instead, and giving him rocks instead of magic missiles, and wall crusher ability, but at last left him as is (except for the change to items). ----------- Changes made to standard units: Barbarian Settlers get thrown 1, they're not quite defenseless. Dark Elf Settlers get magic missile 1. Draconian Settlers fly at 2 instead of 1, get fire breath 1. Dwarven Settlers given mountaineer like they SHOULD have had. Halfling Bowmen given 8 figures, reduced to 6 shots (small quivers). Pegasi given bow strength 7, not 6, probably still not worth it. Klackon Spearmen reduced in cost from 20 to 10. Klackon Swordsmen reduced in cost from 40 to 20. Klackon Halberdiers reduced in cost from 80 to 50. Klackon Engineers reduced in cost from 80 to 30, move at 2, not 1. Klackon Stag Beetles reduced in cost from 160 to 120. Maybe NOW Klackon cities won't be auto-raze. even after these changes, I still razed all klackon cities on sight, but they weren't quite so worthless to enemy wizards. War Mammoths given +2 to hit, probably still not worth it, considering that I'm NOT going to give them regeneration, and without it they are not worth as much as war trolls. Changed Draconian Engineers to Draconian Pikemen, requiring Fighters Guild, with same stats as Halberdiers, Negate First Strike, +2 to attack, and cost of 140. Actually, the picture of them looks very much like they're carrying the same weapons high men pikemen carry! Golems given +2 to hit, still doubt they're worth it. Changed Golems to have fire and cold immunity, in addition to its current death and poison immunity. With 15 resistance, it's immune to almost any stoning attacks, already. NOW they're worth it, barely. even after this change, I still NEVER bothered to build golems, with 1 figure, or the necessary armorer's guild, when I could already build six-figure hammerhands. Maybe the building requirements and costs should be reversed, so a fighters guild allows golems, armorers allows hammerhands. Changed ALL Engineers to require Library and Farmers Market, because they should at least have those buildings before they start to flood the world with useless units. (And Library actually makes sense; you can't require a university for an engineering degree, since some races can't build universities.) Dwarven Steam Cannons are no longer Mountaineers (huge equipment). number of shots to 24, same as catapults, below. ---- The following is a HUGE improvement. I STRONGLY recommend it: Changed ALL magicians to be caster 40. Warlocks still get doom bolt (worth 40 points) plus 4 shots (strength 7); now magicians are finally comparable, getting a doom bolt (only after chaos channelled) *or* 40 points of death magic (only after black channelled or animated) plus NO shots, *or* 13 shots (strength 5). This finally makes it worth building a wizards guild with other races than dark elf; unfortunately, the game only checks "fireball spell" and "healer" abilities to determine whether iron/coal aids production, so magicians now build faster when those resources are present. (Considering the cost of the buildings required to make Magicians, they *should* be dangerous units; now they are. The magicians are now slightly less powerful than warlocks overall, but more flexible after a chaos channel or black channel.) Gave the new magicians some character! They are now AWESOME enough to be worth the huge investment in buildings and unit cost/upkeep. Dark Elf Magicians (Warlocks) are chaos specialists, casting Doom Bolt (and keeping their +1 missile attack and getting no "spells"). (no change) High Men Magicians are Life specialists, giving Resistance To All (+2). (but are reduced to a Pentagram of 5 figures). Orc Magicians use chaos magic to cast armor-piercing lighting bolts (but at -1 to attack strength). Nomad Magicians are sorcerers, with Scouting Range 3. Note that I had to change nomad buildings to allow the magicians to be built, but they were already in the unit tables just waiting to be set free. High Elf Magicians are nature specialists, getting the Purify ability (in addition to keeping a 2-space forestry movement and +1 to hit). is the only way high elves can purify. Consider the building costs just to get here! Beastmen Magicians are also nature specialists, with the almost-unique ability of Merging (in addition to +1 hit and melee). Draconian Magicians are sorcerers with a deadly illusionary attack (but -2 to attack strength compared to other races magicians' attacks) (in addition to their normal 2-space flying ability). Note that Magicians from Myrror races are more powerful than the ones from Arcanus, and thus they cost more to train and support: High Men, High Elf, Orc, and Nomad Magicians cost 180, upkeep 4 gold. Beastmen and Draconian Magicians and Dark Elf Warlocks cost 240/upkeep 5. (What CHANGED in this change: Orcs attack changed to look and act as lightning bolts, reduced 1 point; High Men gain resistance to all +2, lose 1 figure; High Elves gain purify; Beastmen gain merging, cost raised to 240; Draconians attack changed to look and act as illusion, reduced 2 points, and cost raised to 240.) ---- CORRECTED an error in Draconian Magician resistance (it was different between MAGIC.EXE and WIZARDS.EXE): made it 10, since magicians are supposed to have +2 resistance over their race. Not sure it mattered, if the error was in MAGIC.EXE, it would have never been used. Changed slingers to have 8 shots (stones are small), raised cost to 120. Changed galleys to have 24 shots (arrows), catapults 24 (rocks). Ships should do a LOT of long-range fire before being forced to enter melee. (Air Ships left at 10; they can't carry a large load of rocks.) (Catapults are still almost worthless, since a web destroys them, and they almost never *get* all 24 shots anyway, but it helps a little.) Wolfriders and Wyvern Riders now have 2 shots, strength 1, with bows. War MammothsRiders throw rocks twice, like giants, strength 3. They're still mainly melee troops, but are not entirely defenseless at range, and can now defend their cities against flying invisible units within city walls. Changed horsebowmen and centaurs to 12 shots, pegasi to 16. Horsebowmen are on horses, fer cripesake, and carry larger quivers than foot archers. And with only two figures, pegasi were very short-changed on the damage they could do. Now bowmen with 6 figures get 48 shots, horsebowmen with 4 figures get 48 shots, pegasi still only get 32 shots (but at +1 to hit and a greater strength than longbowmen). Javelineers given 8 shots like other bowmen, else they're ripped. Changed Draconian, High Men, and Nomad Pikemen to "normal" units so the race shows along with the name "Pikemen". Just a display change. Changed Klackon Engineers and Settlers to have 4 defense. Made Klackon Settlers cost 150 instead of 120. Gave every lizard unit type Poison 1 special attack. nice for the shamans and javelineers; and yet I still raze them on sight... Changed the movement speed of all catapults and steam cannons to 1/2. About the only difference is that they can't move 2 steps per turn along a road overland, or move on a road and fire in the same turn in combat, and even with endurance, they can't move diagonally and fire. Added +1 att and +1 def to Dwarf Halberdiers to make them worth considering vs. swordsmen (2 less gold upkeep, half the build cost, no armory needed, and was only 1 att, 1 def difference). Berserkers now require a fighters guild instead of armorers guild, since they are comparable to hammerhands, which only require fighters. (This left barbarian armorers guilds as useless buildings, so they were removed below.) Changed all halberdiers who did not already have negate-first-strike to have that ability (some did, some didn't). Pikemen get that AND armor-piercing, thus making it worth the extra building for high men, nomads, and draconians. Stupid game was trying to defend its newly-built dwarven cities by garrisoning them with the ONLY troop unit it could: Settlers. Duh! Given the choice of crashing the game by setting Settlers to require a Farmers Market, or setting Dwarven Swordsmen to not require a smithy or barracks (like other races' spearmen), gee... tough choice. Now dwarves can produce swordsmen in new cities, without building ANYTHING first. Halberdiers require three buildings, so they get to keep the extra bonuses, in addition to negate-first-strike. Changed all Settlers to require the producing city to have a Granary and a Marketplace. Now the stupid game won't tear down dwarven cities, and won't have a Settler on the second turn, to send up adjacent to the player's capital. (Would have made it require a Farmers Market, but there were already four buildings and Engineers requiring that, after changes described below.) Changed Draconian Bowmen from cost 40 (cheaper than Draconian Swordsmen) to cost 75 as they were apparently intended to be. Changed Orc Cavalry to have frst strike, since it was the only cavalry that didn't have it. (And now that all halberdiers negate it, it's not that big a deal to have it.) ----------- Changes made to summoned units: Gargoyles, 6 figures instead of 4. Chaos Spawn, 16 defense instead of 6, they're small targets. Cockatrices, 6 figures instead of 4. Nagas, 4 figures instead of 2. Doom Bat, Hydra, Great Drake, all given fire immunity. Fire Elemental given immolation. Can you believe they didn't have it?? Gargoyles, 12 defense instead of 8. There was a way to get spell-casting creatures for life, death, sorcery, and chaos (arch angel, black channel/animate/ghoul, djinn, and efreet/chaos channel), but NO way to get a nature magic caster. Therefore, I gave Colossus the caster 20 ability and raised their value by 100. Now they're REALLY nasty: webs and cracks call in the first round! Now they might even be worth summoning. (No other nature creature seemed suitable so I chose Colossus as the only one with enough intelligence.) NOTE: you can stop a Colossus from using Cracks Call on you, by throwing Evil Omens. (This also stops an Arch Angel from throwing Prayer or Invulnerability.) (However, after this change, the game rarely uses their casting power in combat.) After winning in 3 to 5 years four times with Invulnerable Guardian Spirits, which had the same attack strength as a Doom Bat or Fire Giant, changed Guardian Spirits cost to summon to 110 (30 less than Doom Bat) and upkeep to 7 (1 less than Doom Bat). It's still a pretty good strategy, it just takes a little longer, giving enemy wizards more chance to develop. ----------- Changes made to Buildings: Required a Farmer's Market BEFORE building a Sages Guild, Fighters Guild, Shipwrights Guild, or Parthenon: people have to EAT before they can do those things. This also solves some stupidity of the computer's AI, since it will no longer be possible for it to build a war college or cathedral before a granary, no longer possible to build a shipwright's guild as the first building in a city. Changed upkeep for City Walls from 2 to 0. Now they're not something you automatically tear down when you take a city. Beats me how stone walls could require any significant upkeep anyway (in the course of a month, that is; I'm not talking about centuries). ----------- Changes made to races: Changed so that Nomads can build Wizards Guilds, so that they can build Magicians, which already exist in the table of unit types. As a slight compensation, changed outpost growth rate from 10 to 8. Changed so Barbarians can't build Armorers Guilds, after changing Berserkers to require only Fighters Guilds. ----------- Changed "Nightshade" to have an 'upkeep' cost of -7, thinking it would give mana to the owner of the city, once a building was built that could 'process' the nightshade. Instead, it gives 7 mana to the *player* for every city in the world that has nightshade. Took it back out; upkeep is now 0 again. if this bug was patched... ----------- Changes made to spell UPKEEP COSTS: NOTE: The worthless spells "Hellvenly Light" and "Cloud of Shadow" used to cost considerable mana to cast, significant mana for upkeep, and give NO benefit except when the city happened to be attacked/defended by the relevant unit types. The changes below make those spells into the Life and Death equivalents of "Raise Volcano" in addition to the piddly little (and unlikely) benefit of having the light, or the darkness, on the city. Even with the cost reduced from 150 to 90, and the upkeep reduced from 2 to -1 (so they GIVE mana), those two spells are STILL not worth casting unless you have NO other overland spells to throw and expect the game to go on way longer than another 7.5 years. Spell Old New (unchanged spells left out) Berserk 0 1 (combat-only, doesn't matter) Cloak of Fear 1 0 (worthless spell) patched? Elemental Armor 5 3 Spell Lock 1 2 Magic Immunity 5 8 Heroism 2 5 Lion Heart 4 6 Planar Travel 5 3 Invulnerability 5 6 Spell Old New (unchanged spells left out) Wall of Fire 2 1 Evil Presence 4 2 Pestilence 5 10 Cloud of Shadow 3 -1 Flying Fortress 25!! 2 worth 10 after a patch? Nature Ward 5 2 Sorcery Ward 5 2 Chaos Ward 5 2 Life Ward 5 2 Death Ward 5 2 Earth Gate 5 3 Stream of Life 8 15 Gaia's Blessing 3 5 Inspirations 2 4 Prosperity 2 5 Astral Gate 5 3 Heavenly Light 2 -1 Consecration 8 1 Wall of Darkness5 1 Altar of Battle 5 20 Spell Old New Eternal Night 15 8 Evil Omens 10 8 Zombie Mastery 40 8 Aura of Majesty 5 1 Wind Mastery 5 2 Suppress Magic 50 30 Time Stop 200 250 Nature Awareness7 12 Nature's Wrath 10 30 Herb Mastery 10 15 Chaos Surge 40 16 Doom Mastery 15 16 Great Wasting 20 25 Meteor Storm 10 40 Armageddon 40 40 (left the same) Tranquility 10 10 (left the same) Life Force 10 10 (left the same) Crusade 10 40 Just Cause 3 7 Holy Arms 10 8 Planar Seal 5 10 Charm of Life 10 30 Detect Magic 3 1 Awareness 3 1 ----------- Changed enchantment power "Chaos" to "Doom", 2 chaos books to enchant (considering it's almost worthless). "Cloak of Fear" requires 22 death books (eliminating it as an option), because it IS worthless. the bug, and this change isn't needed ----------- Changes made to spells: Changed spell TYPE to "Combat spell" for these spells: Earth to Mud (was Special) Web (was Unit) Cracks Call (was Special) Dispel Magic True (was Special) Haste (was Unit) Creature Binding(was Unit) Warp Wood (was Unit) Disrupt (was Special) Warp Creature (was Unit) Magic Vortex (was Special) Call Chaos (was Enchantment, ha!) Healing (was Special) Raise Dead (was Special) Mass Healing (was Special) Possession (was Special) Berserk (was Unit) Animate Dead (was Summoning allowed in combat) Dispel Magic (was Special) Recall Hero (was Special) Changed spell TYPE to "Unit spell ALLOWED on ALL in Combat" for these spells: Endurance (was Unit spell DISALLOWED in combat) Changed spell TYPE to "Unit spell DISALLOWED in Combat" for these spells: patches fix these bugs, this change is not needed Spell Lock (was allowed in combat, but didn't work) Cloak of Fear (was allowed in combat, but didn't work) Changed spell TYPE to "Special spell" for these spells: Earthquake (was City) Move Fortress (was City) Call the Void (was City) Black Wind (was Unit, ha!) Changed spell TYPE to "Enchantment" for these spells: Planar Seal (was Special, ha!) Changed spell COST for these spells: no longer needed Petrify: 35 to 30 Nagas: 100 to 90 Vertigo: 25 to 12 worthless; ought to cost 4000 Stasis: 250 to 120 Disrupt: 15 to 10 Call Chaos: 75 to 65 Cloak of Fear: (4000 to keep them from throwing it) To keep cost the SAME after allowing in combat: Endurance: /5 Spell Lock: /5 Changed spell COST for these spells: Wall of Stone: 50 to 25 War Bears: 70 to 35 -50% Sprites: 100 to 50 -50% Giant Spiders: 200 to 90 -55% Cockatrices: 275 to 150 -45% Basilisk: 325 to 200 -40% Stone Giant: 450 to 180 -60% Ice Storm: 200 to 80 Gorgons: 600 to 300 -50% Move Fortress: 200 to 120 Behemoth: 700 to 350 -50% Entangle: 50 to 45 -10% Colossus: 800 to 600 -25% Earth Gate: 250 to 100 Great Wyrm: 1K to 800 -20% Floating Island: 50 to 60 +20% Nagas: 100 to 40 -60% Blur: 25 to 10 Storm Giant: 500 to 250 -50% Stasis: 250 to 80 Djinn: 650 to 450 -30% Creature Bind' 70 to 35 Great Unsummon' 1K to 350 Sky Drake: 1K to 850 -15% Hell Hounds: 40 to 25 -37% Wall of Fire: 30 to 10 (overland x5) Shatter: 12 to 9 Warp Creature: 18 to 12 Fire Giant: 150 to 75 -50% Gargoyles: 200 to 100 -50% Doom Bat: 300 to 140 -53% Immolation: 30 to 12 (overland, x5) Chimeras: 350 to 200 -5x% Chaos Spawn: 500 to 220 -5x% Efreet: 550 to 280 -5x% Fire Storm: 250 to 150 Hydra: 650 to 400 -4x% Call Chaos: 75 to 50 Great Drake: 900 to 700 -40% Heroism: 20 to 25 +20% (overland, x5) Unicorns: 250 to 120 -xx% Hellvenly Light:150 to 90 (after changing upkeep to -1) Incarnation: 500 to 650 Altar of Battle:300 to 450 Angel: 550 to 250 -xx% Stream of Life: 300 to 450 Astral Gate: 350 to 120 Consecration: 400 to 200 Crusade: 1100 to 1500 Arch Angel: 950 to 800 -xx% Charm of Life: 1250 to 1400 Skeletons: 25 to 15 -40% Ghouls: 80 to 75 - x% Terror: 20 to 15 Posession: 30 to 20 Lycanthropy: 180 to 90 -50% Night Stalker: 250 to 150 -40% Subversion: 100 to 30 Wall of Darkn' 40 to 10 (overland, x5) Shadow Demons: 325 to 150 -5x% Wraith Form: 30 to 10 Evil Presence: 100 to 40 Wraiths: 500 to 400 -20% Cloud of Shadow:150 to 90 (after changing upkeep to -1) Black Wind: 200 to 80 Zombie Mastery: 800 to 400 Famine: 200 to 100 Cursed Lands: 150 to 100 Death Knights: 600 to 450 -40% Death Spell: 50 to 40 Animate Dead: 50 to 30 Pestilence: 350 to 450 Eternal Night: 1K to 300 Evil Omens: 1100to 500 Demon Lord: 1K to 750 -25% Summon Hero: 500 to 40 for disparity in offers Summon Champ' 750 to 120 Changed "Invisiblity" to "Invisibility" as it was intended. ----------- Given that all of these are data changes, and a lot of work to replicate them all in a new version, it'll be a tough choice for me whether to stick with my patched version with all the bugs but decent data, or the patched versions with tons of bugs fixed but the old data, or do the work to put my data patches into a code-patched version (probably the best choice). 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